Whenever one hears a report on the school system of the City of Manassas, it’s always bad news.

As the Washington Post and others continue to report test scores, the Manassas City school system is at the bottom of the pile in Northern Virginia. Recent test scores resulted in Osbourn High School being reduced to provisional accreditation, making the gargantuan task of the new principal even more difficult. This deplorable set of results is achieved despite the City-wide cost- per- student of over $13,000, one of the highest in the US! The superintendent, Gail Pope, is building her empire on illegal aliens, while statistics continue to demonstrate that she and her six-figure staff members don’t know how to educate.

Add (or subtract) to this didactic disaster a few more statistics: approximately 50% of the students receive free or subsidized lunches and breakfasts; even though we are 1,000 miles from Mexico, over 48% of the student enrollment is Hispanic (and unlike people around the globe, the evidence is they don’t strive to learn English); and a survey now states that 48% of students have no respect for private property! No wonder. Free education, free meals, free medical services, free transportation, and…free legal services. Mrs. Pope’s expensive system is training a generation of free-loaders and communists.

But that’s the good…or at least ‘legal’ news. On the not-so-legal side, the school system continues to violate state law. Virginia Code § 22.1-3.1 stipulates that when enrolling for the first time, students must provide an original “certified copy of the pupil’s birth record,” and if this is not done, the principal “shall immediately notify the local law-enforcement agency.”

I sent FOIA requests to the Police Department which responded on September 12 that they have received three (3) affidavits from “July 2011 to September 2, 2011” (strangely, no specific date in July is given) and “… Any date older than these dates is maintained by the Manassas City Schools.” The police don’t keep records for more than 60 days? Really? Wow! In contrast, the City schools claim, in the aggregate, to have sent thirteen (13) affidavits this year to the police. With the exception of Mayfield and Jennie Dean Elementary School, all of the schools refuse to disclose how many students they enrolled with photocopies of birth certificates (which can be easily falsified), and without providing affidavits (also easily falsified, and require no verification). To date, Weems Elementary School and R.C. Haydon Elementary School refuse to provide any information per the FOIA request. The law is being systematically ignored by Mrs. Pope’s school system, and unlawfully enrolled students proliferate.

The City school budget now exceeds $90,000,000, of which over $50,000,000 comes from the City of Manassas (for those who failed math in this school system, that is approximately $1,000,000 per week given to Mrs. Pope and her over-paid staff – including Mrs. Pope’s personal compensation package of over $200,000 per year!). Meanwhile, the School Board bathes in its ignorant apathy and the City Council doles out more money. These misprision politicians are examples of why US education has fallen below most of the industrialized world… and why taxpayers (and parents) in Manassas are apoplectic.

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12 Comments

The police department not keeping record is pretty surprising. I might be wrong but I would think part of the reason for the law is to help detect and combat child abduction. So are people here turning a blind eye to a law they believe might be used ‘unfairly’ against illegals and unwisely possibly letting a tool against child abduction go unused ?

Who is going to buy the houseing in the pill hill area when all the babyboomers leave? Prices for homes in that area , unlike fairfax, have remained at crash level prices! City of Manassas schools have turned into the equivalent of an inner city ghetto school district. Check on the percentages for Kindergarden, !st and 2cd grades. Once the remaining white kids leave, prices will drop and white flight will enshure!

Know what’s really worrisome? PWC residents like to consider their schools better than City of Manassas but the reality is that for White and English Proficient students, the City of Manassas kicks PWC’s backside in some major subjects. So does Manassas Park, BTW.

The City of Manassas schools do have problems which need to be addressed - their scores for English Language Learners, Hispanics, and Blacks are generally the lowest in the region and well below state averages and they actually have pass rates that decline as students progress through school for some demographics and subjects.

Funny because all we hear from SOME City Council members and ALL the City School “bored” is we need to give the schools more money, raise taxes, and hire a PR spin doctor to say, “its not so bad, really”

Remember Manassas “what the hell is” Next? How much money was wasted on that effort and what do we have to show? Nothing!

This group only knows how to spend your hard earned money. You will hear all about the need for a new Baldwin School, what’s wrong with the old Marsteller which is now 1/2 empty, use that school for crying out loud! Does the City now need to to buy the house on Prescott which is falling apart and fix it up to make the elite snobs who live in the old homes nearby happy? The Civil war events last summer, what an excess that was for how much! Bike trails to no where for pervs and thugs to hide out on for another $600,000, sounds good everyone? And, we still can’t fish in our lake Manassas! Wake up folks and be outraged please.

I’m not sure what Andy H wants at this point, I don’t think he is sure concerning the Library budget line, I think he is just looking at a potential place to save money.

What is not good in the discussion over on Andy’s blog is the ‘idea’ to roll the library outlay into the school system’s physical facilities. There’s so many problems with that idea it is shocking that it would be made. I could start with the security issues raised, and that in itself should stick a fork in the idea.